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Photo by: Photo courtesy of the WV Chamber of Commerce
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said tax credits in the inflation-reduction bill could help the state secure a regional hydrogen hub.
WHITE SULFUR SPRINGS – West Virginia’s two U.S. senators remain committed to working together on whether the anti-inflation bill will benefit or hurt West Virginia.
United States Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito speak to attendees at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s 86th Annual Meeting and Business Conference at the Greenbrier.
Capito, R-W.Va., said she was concerned about the $737 billion inflation-reduction bill drafted by Manchin and signed into law by President Joe Biden last month.
“I am very concerned about the direction this bill is taking us. I explained this to Senor Manchin,” said Capito. “People say, ‘Can you work with Sean Manchin again?’ “Of course I can work with Sean Manchin. We’ve been there a lot, and we’ve been there for each other. Everything that happens in West Virginia is very important to us and will continue to be.”
The De-Inflation Act includes $437 billion in new investments in clean energy, climate change mitigation, health care and prescription drug price reform, and funding for Western drought resilience. It also includes $300 billion for the national deficit.
IRAs are funded in part by a 15% corporate minimum tax on book earnings of $1 billion or more reported to investors in financial statements, a 1% fee on stock purchases by corporations, savings on prescription drug cost savings, and funding for hiring. 86,000 more IRS employees.
Manchin, DW.Va., took on Republicans and other pro-inflation groups, including Capito, who said the new law would have little effect on inflation, increase burdens on businesses and hurt fossil fuel industries. Leveraging emerging green energy industries.
“From a political perspective, ‘Joe, why did you do it?’ They say. I didn’t look at it politically, I looked at it for opportunity,” Manchin said. “This legislation will do more to transform the next 10 years. It will guide the investments in the technology to make everything possible for the future of energy, and give us a path forward to become fully energy secure in the country.”
“We cannot continue to fuel the fires of inflation that we are seeing in this country,” Capito said. “The administration and others have passed yet another bill to inject hundreds of dollars into the economy, which I’m very concerned about, will not have a diminishing effect, but will have a greater effect on all of you and the different things we see. Your businesses.”
Manchin said a hydrogen center is needed in West Virginia, using the state’s abundant natural gas resources to create a clean energy source for manufacturing and motor vehicles.
“I’m going to make a prediction: We’re going to have a hydrogen hub in West Virginia because we’re sitting on an ocean of energy. And that means everything in terms of the transition,” Manchin said.
“We have the resources to be completely energy independent,” Manchin continued. “We have the resources of the United States of America to not only help ourselves, but to help our allies without relying on foreign supply chains. If we don’t, God help us…we can’t maintain our superpower status if we don’t have energy security.”
Manchin, Capito and 1st District Rep. David McKinley, RW.Va., formed the West Virginia Hydrogen Hub Working Group in February. Governor Jim Justice, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley; House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay; Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier; and House Minority Leader Doug Schaff, D-Kanawha, were added to the task force.
Manchin, Capito and McKinley were co-sponsors of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that they helped pass last year and that included funding for the Hydrogen Hub project, and Justice was a co-sponsor of the bill. The federal project is funded with $9.5 billion from the Strong Infrastructure Bill, including $8 billion for the Regional Hydrogen Hub Program.
Each mound is required to demonstrate the production of pure hydrogen and to demonstrate the use of pure hydrogen. Legislators were able to insert special language requiring at least one center to be located in the Appalachian region. West Virginia’s proposal for a regional hydrogen hub was submitted to the US Department of Energy in March.
West Virginia’s idea might be a gray hydrogen process, where hydrogen is released into the atmosphere from natural gas; Or the blue hydrogen process, which uses natural gas, but greenhouse gases are captured underground through carbon capture, use, and storage. The IRA includes tax credits for hydrogen and credits to encourage research and construction of CCUS facilities.
In the year Capito, whose first talks with Biden and the White House in 2021 helped lead to the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last November, spoke about the legislation and what it would mean for West Virginia. The state is expected to receive more than $6 billion in West Virginia over the next five to 10 years
“I’m the one who started it with President Biden,” Capito said. “I told the story here last year about how we’re grinding the wheels here, which I think is a big win for West Virginia. We’re seeing the roads, the wastewater, the culverts, broadband expansion, expansions to our airports. We’re updating our infrastructure that we’ve let go of for a long time. It’s a big deal. All of it. West Virginians should be proud of the efforts to improve our infrastructure.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $100 million for broadband expansion in West Virginia. This is more than $1 billion in state funding for various broadband expansion projects through the United States Department of Agriculture, the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced in June that West Virginia was one of four states approved for their broadband expansion projects under the $1.2 trillion U.S. Recovery Plan Act’s coronavirus capital projects fund, allowing officials to spend more than $136 million on broadband programs.
“We’re about to get there … there’s certainly a lot of good, innovative solutions,” Capito said. We need to get the mapping right to make sure we don’t overbuild in my well-served neighborhood… We want to make sure we’re serving the purpose of the underserved and the underserved.
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